If your HIS registration system is down, do you get downtime billing numbers for your BB system to use? Our IT department will not supply downtime billing numbers. This is causing a problem for the BB system we are trying to implement. The BB system will generate a billing number if one is not supplied, but it is not recognized by the HIS. We were told that updating to the correct billing number when the HIS is back up is not an option. I am wondering if our site is unique in not providing downtime billing numbers.

Our registration department assigns downtime billing numbers.

I would think you are not the only department with problems. What does Radiology or anyone else do? Perhaps you can enlist their help to get something changed?

You are correct, we are not the only department having problems. The emergency department has to take their system down when the registration system is down. There was a scheduled 8 hour downtime last month so the ED requested downtime billing numbers but IT said no.

Is there anyone else out there whose IT department will NOT issue downtime billing numbers? I would appreciate posts either way so I know where we stand compared to the rest of the world.

Thanks.

You might consider using the system with a generated billing number, then recreating the patient once the system comes back up and then merge the patients, keeping the patient with the correct billing number. It is a cumbersome workaround, but that is what we do.

BC

That is exactly what we are going to do. It will work since we will be a Blood Bank standalone and our patient volume during downtime is much less than the lab which processes over 800 outpatients a day. For the entire LIS, this would not be a good solution. Our current LIS does not require a unique billing number so they just pop the patient MRN in the billing field and take the billing number update when the system comes up.

Has any one else noticed that IS/IT has become the "tail wagging the dog"? They have gone from being support to being in charge. The past few years it has gone from me telling them what I needed and why followed by them miraculously making it happen to them telling me what I can or can not do or expect. There is no dialogue just dictates and they have the full support of administration becasue they have them terrified. IS has become an 800 lb gorrilla that sleeps anywhere it wants.

There, that's my rant for the day. Now I'm off to do battle concerning the merging of patient information.

Boy you got that right, John. You just have to know when not to be wagged. Our IT guy told us that he was taking the Safetrace server down at noon for 45 minutes the other day. I told him no, he would be taking it down at 2:00 AM if at all. He sputtered for a while, but I think my tone told him who was doing the wagging. Suddenly, the server doesn't need to be taken down at all.

BC

As we move toward a full EMR implementation, I remember the "old days" when the lab was the only computerized dept in the hospital and a 30 min downtime was required every night, with a 2-3 hr downtime for a full tape backup every weekend. And we were happy ...

Now, almost the entire hospital is on-line and almost never goes down, and even a 2-3 second delay in screen response is met with howls! We have become spoiled by the great technology we now have -- and are so dependent on it, that posts to this and other forums are flooded with requests to harness it for strategic benefit. Hardware has become so inexpensive that previous discussions of the trade-offs between software and hardware have become nonexistent.

As long as IT keeps me up and secure, I can live with a few inconveniences a year. They know that up-time is how they are compensated, and I wouldn't want to return to LIS support for anything ... I take that back: we all have our price!